Bharat Bandh: India faces Rs 12,500 crore loss in a day!

New Delhi, Sept 20: India faced a loss of Rs 12,500 crore ($2.25 billion) on Thursday, Sept 20 when BJP-led NDA along with Left and other opposition parties observed Bharat Bandh protesting against recent fuel price hike and FDI in retail.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) issued a statement which says, "Today's bandh (strike) has been disruptive for business and trade in many parts of the country. While an exact loss for the entire economy is not known, it can be estimated that almost Rs 12,500 crore has been the country's loss in terms of disruptions in production and trade."

Supporting Manmohan Singh's UPA government's decision to introduce FDI in retail, CII spokesperson stated, "Good economics seldom makes for good politics and therefore, it is important to communicate to the masses the merit and necessity of the recently announced reform measures."

The President of CII, Adi Godrej expressed hope saying, "It is not often that bold measures are announced to take economic reforms to the next level and whenever such announcements have been made, there have been pain felt by many."

"But the merits of the reforms that were first initiated in the early nineties are there for everyone to see. Irrespective of whichever political party has been in the government since then, the reforms have not been reversed," added Mr Godrej.